The bowel cancer screening age has been lowered to 50 in England
Tuesday 14 January 2025
We're delighted that the NHS has made bowel cancer screening available to hundreds of thousands more people in England as home testing is expanded to include 50–52-year-olds.
People aged 50 and 52 who are registered with a GP are now starting to automatically receive a home test kit every two years by post. This means around 850,000 additional people in England a year will be eligible for the screening test.
The test kit, known as the faecal immunochemical test (FIT), checks for hidden blood in a small stool sample, which can be a sign of bowel cancer.
Bowel cancer screening is one of the best ways to detect the disease early, or in some cases prevent it from developing in the first place. As bowel cancer is treatable and curable when spotted early, the screening programme plays a vital role in improving bowel cancer outcomes across England.
Those newly eligible will receive an invitation letter and will be sent their test with full instructions and prepaid return packaging. This will happen automatically for people in this new age group as this rolls out across the country.
This marks the final step to make screening available to everyone from 50 -74 years old. It means England's programme now adheres to the UK National Screening Committee’s age recommendation. Since beginning the phased roll out in 2021 to lower the screening age, over 4 million more people have been invited to take part in the programme. This is the latest step in the NHS drive to find cancers at an earlier stage when they’re easier to treat.
The NHS is also calling on more people to return the FIT kits. Figures show that uptake is lower in those aged 54 - 59 – with less than 60% of 54-57 year olds having done so, compared to over 70% returning their FIT kits in the 60-74 range.
Lisa Wilde, Director of Research, Policy and Influencing at Bowel Cancer UK, said: “Screening is one of the best ways to spot bowel cancer at an early stage, when it is treatable and curable. In fact, more than nine in ten people survive bowel cancer when it’s diagnosed at the earliest stage. That’s why it’s so fantastic to see the NHS screening programme expanding to include those aged 50 and above in England.
“This is something we have long campaigned for, and we’re sure that the bowel cancer community will be thrilled that more people are now eligible for this lifesaving screening test. ”
- Read more about the importance of bowel screening
- Learn the symptoms of bowel cancer
- Find out about our campaigning work and how you can get involved
